PostgreSQL <> MySQL: first draft

Attached are two text files:
  pgsql_mysql.txt
    - an annotated list of PostgreSQL features not available in MySQL;
  pgsql_mysql-short.txt
    - a condensed version of the above.

The document covers the major differences, though it is not
exhaustive (and full of spleling errors). Corrections, suggestions for
improvement gratefuly received. Or if someone wants to wikify it or,
whatever, fine by me ;-). I've tried to make it readble, i.e. something
to show the technically-aware PHB.

I will be away from tomorrow and though I will have Internet access
I might not have time to read the mailing list for a week or so.

It's taken me longer than I though due to other committments and partly
because of the level of involvment, I keep getting sidetracked by
interesting things in the documentation.

One area where I haven't had time to go into any detail is
MySQL's transaction model. Of particular interest would be
why it just took a MySQL InnoDB table nearly 30 minutes to
rollback about 270,000 insertions when PostgreSQL did it
almost instantly.

On a related note: since I posted the link to the MySQL gotchas
the site has unexpectedly found its way into Google and about
half the hits are from people who've pasted their MySQL error
message into the search field; and I also got a mail from MySQL
in Germany saying how well researched it is and they had comments
on three of the points which I've addressed in various ways.



Ian Barwick
barwick@gmx.net